A memristor, as well as various related metal-oxide-metal structures, is an electrical device having or exhibiting an instantaneous device state (e.g., a resistance state) that is a function substantially of bias history. In particular, a bias (e.g., a voltage or a current) applied across terminals of the memristor may be used to set, select or program the device state of the memristor. Once programmed, the memristor may retain the programmed device state for a specified period of time after the bias is removed. As such, the memristor is a two-terminal device that may function as a non-volatile memory where the programmed device state stores information.
In some examples, the memristor may be switched between a specific pair of device states using a programming signal. For example, the memristor may be switched to a first or ‘ON’ device state (e.g., a relatively low resistance state) by a first condition of the programming signal. Alternatively, the memristor may be switched to a second or ‘OFF’ device state (e.g., a relatively high resistance state) by a second condition of the programming signal. Such switching between specific device states of the pair of device states may be used to implement a binary memory cell or element, for example. Further, a plurality of memristors may be arranged in an array (e.g. a cross-bar array) to serve as a binary memory for storing data in a computer system or as programmable logic, according to various applications.
Certain embodiments of the present invention have other features that are one of in addition to and in lieu of the features illustrated in the above-referenced figures. These and other features of the invention are detailed below with reference to the preceding drawings.